To see the latest campaign treasurer reports of all the candidates for mayor of Lake Worth and for Commissioner of District 1 click on this link.

There are no “Ah Ha!” revelations in these latest reports turned in. Election Day is March 13th and the G2 and G3 reports are still to come. The final report is called the ‘Termination Report’.

For example, after Chris McVoy, PhD, lost his re-election bid last year he had campaign money left over and afterward wrote a check for $1,000 to a City resident for “Data management” and another check to himself for $940.75 for a “Loan reimbursement”.

Which of course begs the question: Had he spent that money on trying to get re-elected. . .

The winner of that District 2 race last year, Commissioner Omari Hardy, turned the balance of his campaign money raised ($658) into what’s called an “Office Account” which is a pretty good indication he plans to run for re-election. Before long we’ll know for sure.

But. Anyhow. . .

As you go over these reports what’s interesting to note is the “TOTAL Monetary Expenditures To Date” versus the “TOTAL Monetary Contributions To Date”.

District 1 Commissioner Scott Maxwell is leading the pack by far in “Contributions” and has the most money still available for “Expenditures”. Mayor Pam Triolo is a close 2nd followed by Sarah Malega, the challenger in the District 1 race. Drew Martin, a candidate for mayor, is quite far off the pace in campaign fundraising.

It is advised to contact the staff first! Contact Recreation/Athletic Coordinator Aundra Lowe, MS, or Nicole Bohannon at 561-533-7363 or by email:

alowe@lakeworth.org

nbohannon@lakeworth.org

Registration is ongoing until March 2, Monday–Friday, 9:00–5:00 at 501 Lake Avenue.Registrations will also be held on Wednesday night, Feb. 28th, from 6:00–8:00 at the Lake Worth Northwest ball fields, 900 22nd Ave. North.

Have received much feedback about this historical topic from those with memories of the C-51 Canal prior to construction of the S-155 Spillway structure (see first image below). One of those observations was the City of Lake Worth once faced the C-51 Canal. The canal was an integral part of our community. When the Spillway structure was constructed in the late 1950s our City turned its back on this once-important asset.

Prior to construction of the Spillway there was once boating and waterway access between the Intracoastal and further inland. Construction of the S-155 ended that. The Blueway Trail with a boat lift and canoe/kayak trail would restore an important part of this areas heritage and history as a boating, fishing, and tourism community.

And this is important as well: learning more about this history helps to explain Lake Worth’s steep economic decline starting in the 1960s which you can still see to this day. It wasn’t just the construction of I-95 that choked off the once-vibrant Dixie Hwy in this City, there were other contributing factors as well. The C-51 Canal, for most of the public now, is just a waterway that defines the border between Lake Worth and West Palm Beach. It wasn’t always that way.

Hope you enjoy reading, “My conversationwith Mr. Buddy Tuppen”:

That would be Buddy Tuppen, the son of another Mr. Tuppen who founded Tuppen’s Marine and Tackle on Dixie Hwy. here in Lake Worth. It was an earlier conversation with Mr. Joseph “Jay” Fearnley at the Lake Worth Rotary that set all this in motion. To read about my conversation with Mr. Fearnley use this link.

The Blueway Trail project
on the C-51 Canal between the city’s of Lake Worth and West Palm Beach
has been getting a tremendous amount of attention on this blog and took
an unexpected turn after speaking with Mr. Fearnley: the Blueway Trail in the context of
history. There once was a marina on the C-51 Canal in Lake Worth. More on that below; first some images to put this in perspective:

Inside the hashed box: Spillway Park, C-51 Canal and the S-155 “spillway” structure as it is today.To see this for yourself take Maryland Ave.off Federal Hwy. in Lake Worth.

Note the change in orientation and C-51 Canal (on right). This image is from 1937. In the center you can see the early platted streets of what is now the College Park neighborhood in Lake Worth.

This image is from the 1950s. Compare with the first image above. See the marina on the Lake Worth side of the C-51? How many businesses supported this marina? Motels? Restaurants? How manyfishing and boating supply stores?

Buddy Tuppen is in his 80’s now. His family used to live on 15th Ave. North and would ride his bike with other kids to fish around what is now Spillway Park. Doing the math that must have been around the late 1940s.

He remembers the era when the picture was taken (see image above from the 1950s). This was south and east of the previous Dixie Hwy. bridge. You can see that on the aerial.
He said there was also a “lock” so that boats could pass through.
He said the land was owned either by the City or the County (Jay
Fearnley said the City owned that land). He remembered
boats in slips that were perpendicular with the dock which ran
parallel to the shoreline of the C-51.

The marina was run
by a fellow named Bill Murrelle. After the City or County made him leave he set up shop in Lantana and had a place
called Murrelle Marine which is still in business today. Murrelle sold that business but it kept the same name. He has since passed after moving to Sebastian.

Buddy Tuppen went on to give more interesting history: his Grandfather bought the land where Tuppen’s Marine is today. The business began in either 1936 or 1937. His grandfather bought the land for past due taxes, about $38. Buddy said his Grandfather had to borrow the money from friends to make the purchase and wondered how he was going to pay it back.

Prior to being Tuppen’s Marine that lot had been a Ford dealership that was wiped out by the 1928 hurricane. The property sat idle after that hurricane until it was purchased by the Grandfather Tuppen’s in the mid 30’s.

Do you have any more history and/or pictures of this area along the C-51 Canal is Lake Worth? I’ve received many of them last year and will be doing a blog post including those photos and more information soon. Have any photos you would like to share? Please feel free to contact me: 561-308-0364; email: WesBlackman@gmail.com

The showroom “Grand Opening” at Tuppen’s in the 1950s. It’s still there at 1006 N. Dixie Hwy.

Will another marina open up on the C-51 Canal? If so, customers will be heading to stores like Tuppen’s, eating at our restaurants, and looking for hotels. Just like it used to be in the little City of Lake Worth.

Below is a press release from the City of Lake Worth about the 2nd Ave. South project that began this week.

This is very, very important:

“Just a point of clarification and I hope people understand, 2nd Ave. South is not part of the Neighborhood Road Program. It’s not part of the bond issue.”—Quote by Lake Worth City Manager Michael Bornstein at a City Commission meeting on January 16th.

The 2nd Ave. South project is funded by a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) from the Palm Beach County Department of Economic Sustainability.

The short quote above by Bornstein would have been all that was necessary in a story published in The Palm Beach Post last month. But instead the public was left scratching their heads because that Post story did not clearly explain the difference between the Neighborhood Road Bond and CDBG funds. They are two completely different sources of funding for infrastructure.

Without further ado. . . the City’s press release:

Between February 26th and July 1st construction will be underway on 2nd Ave South between Dixie Hwy and Federal Hwy. This extensive project will involve a full roadway reconstruction including the sidewalks, ADA ramps, traffic calming measures, decorative pavement and more. As such the road will be restricted to “Local Traffic Only” during construction. Residents will still be able to access their property throughout the project however they may occasionally be impacted by work occurring in front of their property for which they will receive specific notice. This project was funded by a Community Development Block Grant from the Palm Beach County Department of Economic Sustainability.
If you have any questions regarding the project please feel free to contact Public Services at 561-586-1720.

And one last thing. . .

Here is a verbatim quote by Lake Worth Commissioner Omari Hardy, his comments made at the City Commission meeting on January 16th:

“You [Commissioner Hardy addressing Water Utility Dir. Brian Shields] and the rest of the team [Public Services Dir. Jamie Brown et al.] are doing a really fantastic job. There might have been some disconnects here and there but I think overall you guys are doing an amazing job and I’m really glad that you’re on board while we’re going through this.I want to thank the commissioners who have been sitting on this dais longer than I have for having the courage to go for this twice.* And I want to thank the voters who approved this. Because this is really going to transform our City. We talk about ‘curb appeal’ all the time. The street is the part that we have ownership of and we’re finally taking responsibility for that. So I appreciate everybody who was involved with the decision-making in this process and I appreciate all you doing such a great job in the execution of it.”

*This is in reference to the first Neighborhood Road Bond referendum in August 2014 that failed by just 25 votes. In November 2016 the second bond referendum passed “by a whopping 69%”. Commissioner Hardy is quoted above saying, “I want to thank the commissioners who have been sitting on this dais longer than I have. . .”. He is referring to Mayor Pam Triolo and two other members of the City Commission: District 1 Commissioner Scott Maxwell and District 3 Commissioner Andy Amoroso.

Sunday, February 25, 2018

To see this week’s Front Page of The Lake Worth Herald and Coastal & Greenacres Observer click on this link.

To become a subscriber to the Herald and the Observerclick on this link, call the editor at 561-585-9387, or send an email to Editor@lwherald.com

Candidates for Lake
Worth Mayor and City
Commission District 1 will speak
and discuss local issues
at a meeting of the Bryant Park Neighborhood Assoc. on Monday, Feb.
26, 7:00 p.m. at The Beach Club restaurant located at the Lake
Worth Golf Course. Everyone is invited to
meet the candidates and
hear about their experience,
background and
plans for the City of Lake
Worth. The public is welcome
at all of the Bryant Park
Neighborhood Assoc.
meetings on the fourth
Monday of the month.

Below is a video taken at another candidate forum recently and published on my Lake Worth YouTube channel. To become a subscriber click on the red SUBSCRIBE icon and you’ll receive an email when new videos have been uploaded.

Video taken on Monday, Feb. 19th at the Parrot Cove Neighborhood Assoc. also held at The Beach Club:

“Not every article [by Scott McCabe] resulted in a closed case, but each one gave voice to those who had only known silence for years.”—Learn more about this quote and a reporter named Scott McCabe below.

About two years after his slaying, authorities Friday again put out a plea for information about the killer of Andrew Leonard Dixon. Dixon, 20, who lived in the Lake Worth area, was found shot to death late about 11:45 p.m. on Dec. 15, 2015, on the 700 block of Washington Avenue, west of Dixie Highway [emphasis added] in Lake Worth, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said.

A short time later NBC5/WPTV released this YouTube video to the public of their news segment about this unsolved homicide:

Other “cold case” homicides in the City of Lake Worth you may be familiar with are a young man named Woodley Erilas (see below). Another was a struggling addict from a sober home named Tyler Etue, there was “The Yard Man”
Thomas Altman, and another man named Jose Aguilar Juarez whose murder
last year has become just another cold case.

Below is a way for The Palm Beach Post — their beat and crime reporters — to aid families and communities like our City of Lake Worth. They can help solve cold homicide cases. How? By making these cases ‘hot’ once again for the public to possibly bring forward that one small tip: “No tip is too small”.

Do you have any information about any homicide?

Do you fear providing tips because of retribution in your neighborhood or community? There is a way to help solve these terrible crimes, remain anonymous, and claim a reward.

But that case is still unsolved. It’s possible another article featured in the Post could bring forward that one tip to solve this crime, because “No tip is too small”. Just one tip to CrimeStoppers at 800-458-8477, even one little piece of information, could bring some solace and closure to the families and friends of murder victims.

Does the name Scott McCabe sound familiar?

“Not every article resulted in a closed case, but each one gave voice to those who had only known silence for years.”

Our current beat reporter and crime reporters from the Post could begin a series of articles about cold case homicides like what a former City of Lake Worth beat reporter did at another newspaper. Mr. Scott McCabe worked as a reporter for the Post from 1998–2005 and for many
years now has been a crime reporter for the Washington Examiner in Washington, D.C.

Scott McCabe, the Examiner’s
crime reporter, did yeoman’s work with his cold case series, which
tried to revive the hopes of many D.C. area families who lost their
loved ones to homicides. In one instance, McCabe’s column
and the television show “America’s Most Wanted” assisted in a tip that
led to the capture of a suspect in a 15-year-old murder case. Not every article resulted in a closed case, but each one gave voice to those who had only known silence for years.

Has reporter Kevin Thompson, the City’s current beat reporter from the Post, ever tried to give voice to the families of homicide victims “who
had only known silence for years” such as the family of Woodley Erilas who was murdered in early 2015?

Later in 2015 was another murder in the City of Lake Worth. Do you remember Tyler Etue? He was a young man, a
recovering drug addict, sent to a ‘sober home’ for help with his addiction. But Etue was later dumped into a trash can and left to die. When
was the last time you read any updates in the Post about that horrendous crime?

See below for more information about one homicide in particular here in the City of Lake Worth: the murder of Woodley Erilas.

And a question: Why do some murders get the overwhelming attention of the press and news media here in this City of Lake Worth — selling newspapers and blaring headlines for a week or even longer — but other families suffering news of a loved one being murdered can’t get the press and news media to tell their story for more than a day or two, if their story is told at all?

Does it really all come down to what sellsnewspapers and what doesn’t?

In August of last year Juan Javier Cruz was murdered and the suspect was quickly apprehended. Reporter Elliott Wenzler at the Post wrote that this incident happened, “in an area in which residents would not expect a shooting to occur, neighbors said.” Would that be why this murder was news in the Post for an entire week but the murder of Jose Aguilar Juarez the previous June barely received any news coverage at all? The murder of Juarez is now another cold case.

The murder of Woodley Erilas also received scant attention from the news media. He was murdered on January 9th, 2015, in the early morning here in Lake Worth. The case remains unsolved and the family continues looking for leads.

Woodley Erilas was only 27 years old when he was murdered in 2015. Maybe an update in The Palm Beach Post could bring forward a tip. Call beat reporter Kevin Thompson at 561-820-4573 or send an email to: kthompson@pbpost.com